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Like Watching a Motorway Crash: Exploring the Embarrassment Humor of The Office

  • Kai Hanno Schwind

    Kai Hanno Schwind is currently finishing his PhD project entitled “Found in translation: The Office – a case study in transnational format adaptation” for the joint program between the University College of Lillehammer and the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Oslo. He has a masters in theatre, film and media studies and English literature from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and has worked as a print and radio journalist, as well as writer, producer and director for radio comedy, radio plays and audiobooks in his native Germany.

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Published/Copyright: February 3, 2015

Abstract

This article focuses on the construction of embarrassment humor in the British sitcom The Office (BBC 2001–2003) and will identify various aspects of this kind of humor at work by employing a multilayered analysis of the format. The analysis will focus on the specific discourse of embarrassment humor and its relation to performance and narrative will be examined through textual analysis and contextualization. Finally, I will propose an embarrassment trigger model, which will provide an overview of the various areas of social interaction and conduct that the format’s humourous discourse draws from. The study will evaluate in what ways The Office’s embarrassment humor challenges an audience’s viewing pleasure by negotiating issues of empathy and moral disengagement with the conventions of darker forms of mediated humor and comedy.

About the author

Kai Hanno Schwind

Kai Hanno Schwind is currently finishing his PhD project entitled “Found in translation: The Office – a case study in transnational format adaptation” for the joint program between the University College of Lillehammer and the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Oslo. He has a masters in theatre, film and media studies and English literature from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and has worked as a print and radio journalist, as well as writer, producer and director for radio comedy, radio plays and audiobooks in his native Germany.

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Published Online: 2015-2-3
Published in Print: 2015-2-1

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